Let's design an online store together and win the golden Stevie Award

Together with the company BIOvative, Jörg Dennis Krüger has won a golden Stevie Award. And not only that, he is looking for another online store to win the next Stevie Award.

TRANSCRIPTION OF THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST

Hi, my name is Jörg Dennis Krüger, and as the big prize-giver at the entrance has already said:

Yes, I am the conversion hacker. 

And in this little special edition, I would like to announce that we have won two Stevie Awards. 

What is the Stevie Award? The Stevie Award? The Stevie Award is an international business award. There are Stevie Awards all over the world. There's the German award, there's the one in the USA, and there are other Stevie Award offshoots, all of which recognize companies that have done great things. The way it works is that you apply for free, then the whole thing goes to a jury.

There is also information on the Stevie Award website about who sits on the jury. The individual jury members in the various committees for the different areas then rate each individual assessment on a scale of one to ten. And whoever has the most points receives the golden Stevie Award. Whoever has the second most points gets the silver Stevie Award. And above a certain threshold, i.e. if you don't get above a certain level, you don't get a Stewart at all. And in some cases there is a bronze Stevie Award if there are so many good applications. 

And we have been taking part for three years. In the first year, we won the gold Stevie Award for the most innovative company of the year. In the second year, we won the Stevie Award in Gold for our "Think Conversion Masterclass", where we teach the whole topic of A/B testing, personalization and so on. And this year we also entered the Product of the Year category. We also won this category, but only in syllables. For our e-commerce X-Ray for 9.95 Analyzing online stores. Take a look at jdk.de, there is a link to the E-Commerce X-Ray, or google "JDKrüger E-Commerce X-Ray". I'll also put a link down here in the show notes. 

But what I'm most pleased about is that we won a golden Stevie Award for the best online store of the year. We started working with the company BIOvative last year, and BIOvative does something really great. They make compostable plastic bags. They are made from corn starch and are really compostable in home compost.

And here's the best part: these are organic bin liners. So, I put all my organic waste in it, throw it through my organic waste garbage can and I can simply have it collected because it can also be composted by the municipal utilities. And it's still really great! They also have really big organic waste bags, 240 liters, which fit directly into the organic waste garbage can. That means no more messing about in the organic waste garbage can, just throw it in there. It's collected every two weeks and it's wonderful. No maggots in summer, nothing. Anyone who has such an organic waste garbage can at home knows what I'm talking about.

Well, and of course they discovered online for themselves, they already had Amazon as a very strong sales channel anyway. And then they also wanted to launch their own online store, or they already had one at Biovative-Products.de. However, that was "plain vanilla Shopify", so there wasn't really much there, it didn't look good, there was nothing there, they didn't actually sell anything through it, it wasn't SEO optimized either. 

And as a conversion hacking company, we naturally think about where the potential really lies in a store. In other words, where do we really need to start so that something like this sells more? And here we have noticed something very special. We have to give the product a real emotional charge. We have to show that. If I explain it like that, then it's not bad. Then I think I've already made a convincing sale and explained why people should buy this product. But if I just show the product in a store like this, "compostable bin liner", then it doesn't come across so well. In other words, we produced videos and not just small videos, but real video productions. 

Because I have such a large team, a creative team in Austria. I work with them on a freelance basis. They run a few online stores of their own and also do other things, such as filming soccer matches, Champions League and so on. But they also sometimes work with us on great e-commerce projects. In other words, if you want an awesome video, just get in touch. So great videos in every respect, really strong sales videos. CEO founder stories and so on.

So just get in touch. This is not an advertisement, not a standard product, but we can do some really cool stuff. With a €40,000 camera, a full team and everything that goes with it. I shot a video myself. Maybe we'll finally have our company video here soon, where we can really show off the drive that everything was recorded properly. 

However, we did that for BIOvative, so it was really great, a CEO founder story, really great large-format pictures, but also testimonials. Where we put people in the kitchen, let them cut vegetables, let them try out these bags to see how they fit, how they work, whether they can hold moist things and so on. 

We then produced them accordingly for advertising on Instagram and TikTok, but also of course for the website itself. And we also took great photos, i.e. really good photos in the same environment as the testimonials, so that you can really see the products, not just in the role. But really: How does the product work? What can it withstand? How can I handle it? How do I get it open? These bags are just really great. Made in Germany. Enormously good, as you can see from these pictures. 

And that was a meaningful part, one of the most meaningful parts, that we won this golden Stevie Award for Biovative.de. Funnily enough, we programmed the site twice. We first set it up on Shopify because the old store was on Shopify, but then we decided that we didn't like it. We didn't have enough options on Shopify for such an awesome product and then migrated everything to WooCommerce again. That was no effort at all, because the conception is of course the main effort to implement it properly. After all, we had a lot more options this way. 

For example, what is definitely being planned here is to create a proper sales funnel, a freebie funnel. I'll be happy to explain exactly what that means next time. With this funnel, we can offer free products in exchange for shipping costs or similar in order to raise awareness of the products in the first place.

Because a single bag, a single roll doesn't cost much either, of course. Yes, and so we have now also set up a proper SEO section in the magazine area here, which those who really wanted to have. From a conversion point of view, I say: "Yes, you can do it, it doesn't help much, but it doesn't hurt either". But it just ensures that they can produce a bit more content, because they naturally want to get their message out there. 

That was another small point of contention here: How strong do you make branding? How strong do you make conversion optimization? I'm the hardcore conversion guy who says: "You absolutely have to sell!" We have certainly implemented that a little less here than I would have done in my own store. But branding is of course also important and especially important in a situation like this, because these bags aren't just available in their own online store. They are also available at DM and Rewe, for example. Another idea would be to offer them at Fressnapf as dog bags or as shopping bags. So yes, there has to be a bit of branding so that you also go into the store and don't just sell hardcore online. But yes, so take a look: Biovative.de. 

And if you want to have an awesome online store with all the bells and whistles, just get in touch with me at jdk@jdk.de or simply via my website jdk.de. Then let's talk about how we can design an online store together that wins prizes. Because a golden Stevie Award as the best online store in 2023 is a pretty cool thing. And I'd love to win it again next year.

So get in touch, bring some money for an online store, and then we'll win the golden Stevie Award together next year. So, I'm looking forward to it. All the best and don't forget: Follow Jörg Dennis Krüger on Instagram or go to the Facebook page, Jörg Dennis Krüger and see what great things we post there. We try to spread knowledge everywhere and stay informed on all the social media channels. See you soon next time, and last but not least, please give us five stars on Spotify and iTunes. 

See you then, Ciao!